October 11

“The only way out of an ‘I’ religion into a ‘not I’ religion, is by a death to self.  We must die that we may live.  Practically, this means that we are not to care what self gains or what becomes of self but only how God is treated and what brings gain and joy to Him.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 9/27

I think this dying to self is one of the most misunderstood things in Christendom.  I was reading in Eugenia Price’s "Make Love Your Aim" last night where she wanted to correct the mistaken impression she gave in an earlier book.  In talking about being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) many of her readers thought that meant to kill off self.  Now she was telling them this isn’t possible or desirable.  She went on to point out that we have already been crucified with Christ when we believe in Him.  This is what I’m finally learning.  When Hannah Whitall Smith speaks of dying to self she is saying in another way what Eugenia is saying--since self has already been crucified with Christ, we must forget about that self.  The reason we can do that, and still survive, is that Christ is looking after us now.  This is where we get confused often.  Some of us think that we have to continue to look after self and others of us think we have to kill self.  Both are wrong.  We don’t have to do anything to or for self--just forget about it.  A little praise song just came up in my mind that really speaks it all:  ^♫Just forget about yourself and come into His House and Praise the Lord.^♫  It’s in praising our Lord that we are enabled to forget about self.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”  Psalm 28:7